


only chains and broken bones

by BananasofThorns



Series: look the devil in the eye [3]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alliances, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anarchy, Angst, Deals, Explosions, Gen, I keep changing the tags on this oops, Manipulation, Minecraft Mechanics, POV Alternating, Political Alliances, Supernatural Elements, spoilers for The War, u know how it is, you don't have to read the rest of the series to read this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27481654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananasofThorns/pseuds/BananasofThorns
Summary: “Dream!” Schlatt calls, arms wide in greeting. “Boy, do I have a proposition for you. I think you’re really gonna like it.”Dream tilts his head and smiles, slightly; he hadn’t known what to expect when Schlatt had asked for a meeting, but this is...interesting. “Is that so?”(or: Dream makes some deals, betrays some people, and destroys some nations. An alternate, more canon-compliant ending to the previous fics.)
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Dave | Technoblade, Clay | Dream & Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Wilbur Soot, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: look the devil in the eye [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987141
Comments: 33
Kudos: 224
Collections: stories from the pantheon





	1. villain

**Author's Note:**

> [fic title from Broken Bones - KALEO]
> 
> [edited] I originally posted this like a week before The War and it was 1) supposed to be a oneshot but 2) if I did continue it I thought my plans were gonna be hella canon divergent. but they weren't?? so pog lmao (I did alter some things to incorporate canon events but again: not as much as I thought I would). anyway, enjoy!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [chapter title from Villain - Stella Jang]

“Dream!” Schlatt calls, arms wide in greeting. “Boy, do I have a proposition for you. I think you’re really gonna like it.”

Dream tilts his head and smiles, slightly; he hadn’t known what to expect when Schlatt had asked for a meeting, but this is...interesting. “Is that so?”

Schlatt grins. “It is. Come in, come in; let’s talk.”

He ushers Dream into a lavishly furnished yet oddly bare dining room; the walls are lined only with dark oak panelling and golden candles. The table is long and the chairs are grand, but the white porcelain plates are spotless. A wine bottle, half-empty, is the lonely centerpiece.

Schlatt takes the chair at the head of the table and gestures for Dream to sit opposite him. Dream complies, staring him down through the dead eyes and cold smile of the mask.

“Well?”

Schlatt picks up a glass filled to the brim with blood-red wine. “I’m a lonely man, Dream,” he sighs. “First Tubbo, now Quackity and Fundy— my entire nation has left me! To lose.” He laughs, bitter. “Kind of shitty of them, you know? I don’t like to lose.”

Dream inclines his head; he understands that. “I can tell.”

“Well, then, let’s make a deal. You’re ambitious; like me, you’re a _businessman._ Nobody else in this godforsaken world understands that, but I do. I know that, in the end, what you want is for all of this land to be back under your control. I respect that.”

Beneath the mask, Dream smiles. Schlatt takes a long drag of his wine and sets the glass back on the table with a clunk. Liquid sloshes over the edge, staining his fingers and the cuff of his shirt, but he doesn’t seem to care.

“I’ll give you Manberg - _L_ ’manberg, whatever, I don’t fucking care - in exchange for protection. Everyone in this world wants me dead, Dream, and I don’t blame them.” Schlatt chuckles. “But I don’t want to die! So I give you what you want, you protect me, and it’s a win/win for us both.”

Dream hums. He and Schlatt study each other for a long moment before Schlatt stands. Dream meets him halfway; his footsteps are near-silent, but Schlatt’s tap rhythmically on the hardwood floor. 

“Well?” Schlatt tilts his head back to look the mask in the eye. “Do we have a deal?”

Dream smiles, deadly. “We do.”

+++

They shake hands in an empty, windowless room with red wine spilling across the table like blood.

Dream's palm _burns._

+++

“Wow,” Schaltt says. “ _Wow._ He really was planning on blowing us all to kingdom come, huh?”

Dream studies the rows and rows of TNT, watching Schlatt’s smile out of the corner of his eye. “He was.”

“Wow,” Schlatt repeats, shaking his head. A pause, and then, “Destroy it all; I want _nothing_ left here if he comes back to finish the job. If he thinks I’ll be that easy to kill, he’s fucking wrong.”

Dream’s lips twitch beneath the mask. “Of course. Anything in particular you’d like me to do with it?”

Schlatt hums, pacing as best he can in the cramped, rough-hewn chamber. His shiny dress shoes kick aside the button, abandoned on the floor. It clatters into the shadows and disappears.

“Actually, yeah. Pogtopia’s been getting a little too full of themselves recently, don’t you think?”

Dream pulls his pickaxe from his inventory; the dull flash of white throws Schlatt’s face into stark relief.

“I do.”

+++

By some odd stroke of luck, nobody returns to Pogtopia in the time it takes for Dream to completely empty his inventory of TNT. He knows the ravine very well after spending most of the past week there, with or without Wilbur’s knowledge; there are plenty of shadowed corners and forgotten passageways to hide the TNT in. Dream makes sure to place each piece far away from the strange amount of buttons lining Pogtopia’s walls.

Nothing will be detonating without him, specifically, finishing the redstone. He covers his tracks with the same blocks he had broken to get there and the ravine returns to its normal appearance, innocuous in its secrets.

His palm aches, and there’s an odd weight in his throat. He ignores them both.

+++

_Wilbur—_

_The festival did not go how any of us thought it would. I know you haven’t gone back to detonate the TNT yet, so I’ll tell you now: it isn’t there. Schlatt found it and took it; he’s a smart man, in that regard._

_I have another offer for you. You want L’manberg to burn only because you cannot have it - would the case be the same if your country was returned to you? Just a thought._

_Meet me in the forest behind Pogtopia if you want to talk. Don’t worry about where; I’ll find you._

_\- :)_

+++

Dream watches from an upper platform as Tommy shows Fundy and Quackity around Pogtopia. The nation has never been so full; Schlatt was right, they really have become far more powerful than anyone expected. Fundy hands Tommy a book and, even without reading the title, Dream knows what it is. He waits, smiling to himself as Tommy skims the pages, eyes growing wider each second.

When he closes the diary a few minutes later, Dream shifts, purposely kicking a pebble down into the ravine. It’s almost comical how fast everyone turns to stare up at him when he leans out, allowing the lanternlight to catch on the sharp angles of his armor.

Tommy, unsurprisingly, speaks first. “Dream!”

Dream waves. “Hello.”

“What are you—”

 _Well_ , Dream thinks wryly, _no time like the present_.

“I’ll just say, you may have a traitor here,” he interrupts, grinning wide beneath the mask.

Quackity stares. “ _What?_ ”

“Who.” Tommy’s eyes flash, dangerous and dark, and Dream chuckles.

“Who is it?” Quackity asks, as Fundy echoes the same thing.

Dream just shakes his head. “You won’t see it coming,” he warns. “It may ruin your whole plan. Just...be wary.”

He turns to leave, freezing when he sees Wilbur watching from another platform. His face is unreadable, but he nods slowly when they make eye contact. Dream nods back and turns away, disappearing into the shadows.

“Well, it’s not me,” he hears Wilbur say. “I’ve already— I don’t know how I could traitor it more. Unless I blow Potgopia up?” He sounds amused at the thought.

The cacophony of their voices gets quieter as Dream walks away. He closes his eyes, smiling faintly; when he opens them again, he’s back at Schlatt’s side.

“Well?”

“They have been...made aware. Of the threat.”

Schlatt smiles. “Good.”

Dream’s palm pulses, pain flaring momentarily before it fades to nothing more than a dull, barely-noticeable ache.

+++

Tommy stares at him for a long, long time before sighing. Dream stands carefully still, very aware of Ponk’s crossbow aimed at his face. Not that it would do much, but...repairing his mask would be a pain.

Finally, Tommy can’t hold himself back.

“Dream, what the hell? Why would you— why would you betray us? That’s—” He shakes his head, arms crossing and uncrossing as he paces angrily. “I thought we were friends.”

“Tommy, we haven’t been friends for a long time,” Dream says as gently as he can.

Tommy grimaces. “Okay, yeah, but— you _betrayed_ us, Dream. Why would you— I thought you were on our side!”

Dream chooses his words carefully. “Tommy, I’ve never— I’ve never been on your side.”

“God, Wilbur really was a fool to trust you, huh?” Tommy spits, the words tripping over themselves in his anger.

Dream chuckles. “Maybe. I’d say that my interest is in myself, and I have been...given something that is far more powerful to me than friendship. I’m a businessman, Tommy.”

Tommy sighs, reaching up to run a hand through his hair before he realizes he’s wearing a helmet.

“Whatever. Let’s go, Ponk.”

They turn, Tommy stalking away furiously as Ponk trails behind, crossbow still aimed carefully. Dream watches them go, arms crossed.

Halfway down the stairs, Tommy turns and shouts, “You’ve fucked up, Dream! You better watch your back!”

Dream smiles, as sharp and deadly as his axe. “You too, Tommy - better find out who that traitor is!”

He turns his back on them both. Between one step and the next, he’s gone.

+++

_Dream,_

_I’m interested. Let’s talk._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some notes:  
> \- Dream never tells Wilbur that he's allianced with Schlatt, which is how he can get L'manberg back. He knows that Wilbur will join his side, but not if he knows that it's also technically Schlatt's side. This goes along with my theory that the traitor doesn't know they're the traitor and that Dream will manipulate them onto his side.
> 
> \- Schlatt is [redacted]. He and Dream made a deal and shook on it. Dream is _the most_ powerful entity on the world, but he is not _the only_ powerful entity.
> 
> let me know if you have any questions about the fic, the series, or something else! I'd be happy to answer


	2. wolf in sheep's clothing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [chapter title from Wolf In Sheep's Clothing - Set It Off]
> 
> aaaa okay so this was supposed to be a oneshot focusing on Dream but then November 16th Happened and now it has 3 chapters and is not Dream-centric oops. You may have also noticed that I changed the tags and that's for the same reason (aka stuff happened and I got Ideas). It's still canon-divergent because 1) I didn't just wanna rewrite what happened because we already know what happened and 2) I have my own ideas and I think they are pretty good lmao /hj
> 
> enjoy!

_ Dream: Why are you still on Pogtopia’s side? _ _   
_ _ Dream: You know they’re just gonna reinstall their own government as soon as Schlatt’s gone, right? _

_ Dream: I thought you were an anarchist, Techno. _

_ Technoblade: I am. I’m biding my time. _ _   
_ _ Technoblade: Haven’t you ever heard of playing the long game? _

_ Dream: Funny. _

+++

It’s just him and Techno in Pogtopia tonight. Wilbur paces the walkways like a ghost, running his fingers gently and carefully over the buttons lining the walls. He has no idea when they showed up, or who put them there. Part of him wants to press them all, just to see what would happen.

He doesn’t.

Something big is going to happen soon. Ever since the festival, there’s been a tension in the air; they’re all waiting for something, Wilbur just doesn’t know what it’ll be. The lanterns in Pogtopia seem darker tonight, swaying in the cold draft that never seems to leave this stupid cave. Techno is sharpening his weapons down by his old potato farm; the repetitive scrape of the whetstone carries a low note of warning.

Wilbur sighs. “Techno,” he calls, trusting the echoes to carry his voice, “can I ask you something?”

The whetstone stops, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. “I mean, you just did, but yeah.”

Wilbur scoffs. “You’re hilarious, Techno.” He hesitates, rolling the words around in his mouth before— “If I were to...oh, I don’t know, blow up Manberg at some point like I’d planned to do a week ago, you— you wouldn’t get pissed at me, right? Because Tommy definitely would, and—”

Techno snorts, a sharp bark of laughter, and Wilbur can almost see his grin; he mirrors it, unconsciously.

“Are you kiddin?” Techno asks. His voice sounds closer than it had a minute ago, and Wilbur turns to find him on the opposite end of the walkway, arms crossed loosely. “I’d probably help you, Wilbur, I’m an anarchist!”

“Of course, of course,” Wilbur agrees, chuckling. “Hey, remember when you said you had the ability to create these...creatures of mass destruction?”

“Mhm.”

“You still have those, yeah?”

Techno’s eyes narrow, scrutinizing but not aggressive. “Of course I still have them, Wilbur. Did you think I’d just, what, get rid of them?”

“No, well, I don’t know!” Wilbur shrugs. “I was just checking!”

“Right.” Techno’s frown deepens; the lantern above them casts his face in shadow, and Wilbur fights the urge to back away. “Is there a point to all this?”

Wilbur smiles weakly. “I mean, you know—”

Techno groans. “Oh, this is about Dream, isn’t it,” he says, even more unenthusiastic than usual.

“Well—”

Techno sighs, striding forward. His armor glints purple-black and bruiselike in the low lighting and Wilbur scrambles to let him pass.

“Don’t trust him,” Techno warns. “He’s doing something with Schlatt. I dunno what, but it’s probably not good.”

Bitterness traces his words, like he knows more than he’s letting on. Wilbur frowns, crossing his arms.

“What do you mean he’s ‘doing something with Schlatt’?”

Techno glances over his shoulder. “I literally just said I didn’t know. But Dream said Schlatt rigged Pogtopia, right?”

Wilbur glances around at the walls and the floors and the buttons. Heaviness curls in his gut and he pushes it away, grimacing.

“Yeah.”

“And the TNT in Manberg is gone.” Techno smiles humorlessly. “Not to point fingers or anything, but Dream was the only other person who knew where it was besides you.”

He shrugs and disappears up the stairs, cloak curling bloody red around his heels.

“Yeah,” Wilbur repeats to the empty ravine. “I know.”

The words taste ashy on his tongue, and he sighs.

+++

Tommy returns just before sunrise, eyes hard and knuckles white around the hilt of his sword. Tubbo, Niki, Fundy, and Quackity are with him, and Wilbur watches blearily as they descend into the ravine proper. He hasn’t slept, he doesn’t think, in days.

“Hello, Tommy,” he greets, smiling thinly, when Tommy stops in front of him.

“Wilbur.”

Wilbur tilts his head back against the wall, pressing it against a button or two. Everyone flinches and he tries not to laugh.

Nothing happens. The ravine is still and silent.

“What’s up, Tommy?”

Tommy swallows. “We’re going to war against Schlatt. On the sixteenth.”

Oh, lovely. Wilbur chuckles, just on the wrong side of hysterical. Fundy and Quackity shift uneasily and glance at each other.

“I’ll be ready,” Wilbur promises, with far more cheer than he feels.

+++

“So,” Techno says, and then doesn’t continue.

Beneath the mask, Dream is grinning. Techno is  _ sure _ of it, and he crosses his arms so he doesn’t do anything stupid.

“So,” Dream parrots.

God, he’s so punchable. Techno sighs.

“You made a deal,” he accuses.

All of the playfulness drains from Dream’s posture abruptly; he could be a statue for how cold and blank he becomes. Well, that answers that question.

Dream crosses his arms. “Why do you care?”

“Oh, I don’t. Just thought you were smarter than that.”

Dream’s fingers twitch.

“I know what I’m doing,” he defends.

“Oh, I’m sure that you do,” Techno says, and he even means it. “Just thought it was an interestin choice to make. Wilbur’s gonna be so mad.”

Dream scoffs. “Like he can do anything.”

Techno shrugs, turning to leave. He’s loving the conversation, really, but he has more important things to be doing. He’s heard there’s going to be a war.

“Don’t get yourself killed,” he calls over his shoulder, grinning. Dream laughs. When Techno looks back, he’s gone.

+++

“Hello, Dream,” Wilbur greets, far too cheerfully. Dream narrows his eyes.

“Wilbur. You said you wanted to talk?”

They’re in the community house; neutral ground, or as close to it as they can get. Punz and Sapnap are patrolling the area, so there will be no unwanted visitors until this conversation is done. Dream wishes Pogtopia wasn’t so populated; it’s too hard for him to sneak in without actually trying, and he can’t be bothered to do that.

“I did, I did,” Wilbur agrees, nodding.

He’s still acting far too pleasant. Dream waits; he’s pretty sure he knows what this is about.

“You know, I didn’t really care about the fact that you betrayed us,” Wilbur starts, his politician’s smile still pasted on his face. “Betrayed me. Kind of expected it, to be honest - your motives have always been a little wishy-washy. But  _ Schlatt?” _

The anger is there now, barely visible where it lurks in Wilbur’s eyes and beneath his words. Dream crosses his arms, pressing his right palm against his armor.

“How did you even find out?” He asks.

Wilbur scoffs. “I’m not an idiot, Dream. Only two people knew where that TNT was; it all adds up too neatly to be a coincidence.” He grimaces. “And Techno said you were up to something. I— I trust his judgment on stuff like this.”

Of course. Dream rolls his eyes.

“Schlatt offered me something,” he explains carefully, when it becomes clear that Wilbur is waiting, “far more important than any alliances or...friendships I had at the time.”

Wilbur rolls his eyes and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a balled-up piece of paper and tosses it over. Dream catches it; he doesn’t have to open it to know what it says. He’d written it, after all.

“L’manberg. He offered you L’manberg, didn’t he?” 

Wilbur’s politician smile is back full-force, sharp and burning.

Dream crushes the paper further. “Yes.”

“In exchange for?”

He bares his teeth. “Keeping him alive. He’s smart, he knows everyone on this world wants him dead.”

Wilbur raises an eyebrow. “Not everyone, clearly.” 

Dream hums.

“The offer still stands, you know.”

Wilbur scoffs. “I want my country back, Dream, or I want it gone. I’m not going to work with the man who took it from me.”

“I don’t expect you to work with him. Just know that, when he completes his side of the deal, I’ll have L’manberg. It’ll need a new president.”

“And what makes you think he’ll keep up his end?” Wilbur argues, gesturing widely. “He’s a liar, you know that! He’ll do whatever he can to stay in power!”

Dream glares. The axe on his back is heavy. “We shook on it; he won’t break that unless he wants to get banned from the world again.”

“Yeah, yeah— you’re fucking weird, you know that? You and Schlatt and Techno.” Wilbur shakes his head. “Fucking weird.”

Dream laughs. It feels hollow. “Yeah, well. Some would argue that you’re insane. Maybe you’re imagining things.”

Wilbur snorts. “I’m not, but okay.”

“And maybe you aren’t,” Dream agrees. He holds out a hand. “Well? Do we have a deal?”

Wilbur crosses his arms. “What do you want out of this?”

Ah, clever. Dream drops his hand and smiles.

“I need a man on the inside,” he says. “Pogtopia is getting too powerful and, despite what people think, I’m not all-knowing.”

“And if they find me out? It’s not like I’m all that trustworthy right now, you know.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Two flashes of white; a button appears and disappears in Dream’s palm, almost too fast to see. Wilbur’s eyes narrow in understanding. “They won’t.”

“You’re a clever bastard, aren’t you?” Wilbur asks. He’s smiling, and Dream laughs.

“It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Soot.”

+++

Dream studies his maps carefully. Each man-made area on this world is meticulously drawn and detailed, including all the paths they’ve made to get there. Dream traces the tunnel connecting Pogtopia and Manberg; the redstone dust that lingers on his glove smears onto the paper. He picks up his pencil and makes a note, running calculations.

It took a lot of time to rig Pogtopia. It would be a shame, he thinks, if it all went to waste.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's really fun to write Techno (also he is also a god just not. as God as Dream is if that makes sense)
> 
> next chapter should be up tomorrow!


	3. meant to be yours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [chapter title from Meant to be Yours - Heathers Musical]
> 
> goddd this was so fun to write and I did it entirely for the Drama and Aesthetic. enjoy!!

“Just in case something goes wrong,” Dream says, pressing a lighter into Wilbur’s hands, “this is our contingency.”

Wilbur smiles, grim. If he can’t have L’manberg— “Of course. Just in case,” he echoes.

Dream chuckles like he knows exactly what Wilbur is thinking.

+++

“Wilbur, get some armor,” Techno orders, watching everyone rifle through his chests with zero respect for how long it spent for him to gather all of this.

Wilbur glances over. “Hm? Oh, no, I don’t need it.” Techno sighs. 

“Right, okay, listen.”

He steps around Tommy and grabs Wilbur’s arm, dragging him into the netherwart farm. The scent hits him immediately, an odd mix of sulfur and sickly-sweet rot, but he’s used to it by now.

“I don’t care if you’re planning to do something dramatic, we’re still going to fucking war,” he says, pulling Wilbur down so he can look him in the eye. “You need armor or you’re going to get yourself killed.”

“I’ll respawn,” Wilbur points out. Techno rolls his eyes. “I don’t need armor, Technoblade.”

“Oh my god.” Techno sighs, ducking through his sugar cane to reach the chest; he can feel Wilbur watching him and glares. “Don’t tell any of them about this, they’re already stealin all my other stuff.”

“No, I won’t, don’t worry,” Wilbur assures.

Techno pulls a handful of golden apples and a fire-resistance potion - 8 minutes, because he’s _nice_ \- out and hands them to Wilbur.

“What—”

“Don’t do anything stupid before the fun begins,” he warns. Wilbur snorts.

“It’s going to be a war, Techno. War and chaos.” 

Techno raises an eyebrow. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

+++

“Everyone betrayed me,” Schlatt shouts, desperate fury bleeding through his words. 

Wilbur crosses his arms, shifting so he’s standing in front of Tommy and Tubbo. He probably thinks he’s being subtle; he’s not, but Dream can’t really fault him for it. Schlatt turns to the crowd, eyes blazing.

“Everyone _left_ me! Fundy, I trusted you and look—” Schlatt chuckles, bitter. “Look where that got me. And Quackity! I thought we had something, man, I really did.”

A few rows up, Quackity winces. “You’re crazy, Schlatt. You’re crazy.” His voice shakes, but he stands his ground.

Schlatt chuckles. “You were my vice president and you fucking ruined it,” he spits. He pauses and his eyes, manic and furious, meet Dream’s. “We had a deal, Dream! We had a _deal.”_

Dream tilts his head, arms crossed. Everyone turns to look at him and he tunes them out, staring Schlatt down. The man should’ve known better; Dream has been making deals long before he came to this world. He knows all the loopholes, and it isn’t hard to ignore the pain.

“Did we? I thought you were smarter than that.”

Schlatt growls. Dream’s palm burns and he smiles. Wilbur grabs Schlatt’s shoulder and pulls him back, and everyone’s attention slowly returns to the stage.

“Alright, that’s enough.” Wilbur glances over his shoulder at Tommy and Tubbo, then turns back to the crowd. A smile creeps across his face. “Hey, Technoblade. You want to come up here for a second?”

Tubbo flinches; Tommy’s eyes flash. Wilbur keeps smiling, blank and empty, as Techno makes his way up the stairs. His crossbow is already loaded. Schlatt laughs.

“You always did have a flair for the dramatic, Wilbur.”

Wilbur’s grip tightens on Schlatt’s shoulder for only a second before he backs away.

“Technoblade, if you would be so kind—”

Techno glances over his shoulder at the crowd. Dream inclines his head as the pain in his hand fades. Techno smiles, grim and pleased, and raises the crossbow.

_[Jschlatt went off with a bang due to a rocket shot by Technoblade]_

+++

It’s a silent, unanimous decision to make Tommy president. Bitterness curls in Wilbur’s gut but when he plasters a proud smile onto his face, only most of it is faked. He tunes out most of the speech to watch Tubbo; the kid’s smile is wider than it’s been in months. Beside him, Techno stares at the crowd, and Wilbur follows his gaze to Dream. _Just in case— contingency—_

Tommy clears his throat. “And I’m honored, really, but...I can’t. I still have unfinished business.” Wilbur’s eyes narrow. “So until I get my discs back, I can’t be president. But Wilbur—”

He turns, eyes bright, and Wilbur forces his smile back up. He’s done it so many times now that it comes easily, and Tommy has never seen through it.

“Wilbur...after everything you’ve been through, after all your talk about fucking...Chekhov’s gun, I know now. I know it was all just talk. There was never going to be an explosion,” Tommy says confidently, like he _cares_ , and in his pockets, Wilbur’s fingers twitch. “So Wilbur, take your place on the podium.”

Wilbur joins him at the front of the stage, heart pounding in his ears. Tommy turns to the crowd, their friends and their enemies, smiling even wider—

“I have one last thing to say, and I never thought I’d say this...but even after the hardships, the tyranny we’ve been through...Wilbur. Tubbo.” He glances over his shoulder. “It was—”

Wilbur steps forward, pulling the lighter and a stick of TNT from his pocket. Everyone freezes; the world turns deathly silent, and Wilbur can almost hear it echo when he clicks the lighter. Tommy’s hand closes around his wrist, but it’s too late.

“It was never meant to be.”

+++

Dream laughs as the crowd rushes around him, away from where Wilbur had dropped the dynamite. They won’t be able to escape; it’s too late, and there’s far too much TNT buried just beneath their feet. Up on the stage, Tommy pulls Wilbur back and yells for Tubbo to run.

When the dynamite explodes, there’s a moment when everyone freezes; someone laughs nervously, and for a second, they all relax. They don’t realize the rest of the TNT is detonating until it’s too late and the world becomes nothing but shockwaves and fire. The ground rumbles and disintegrates beneath their feet.

“ _My_ L’manberg,” Wilbur shouts, voice ringing out over the screams. “My great unfinished symphony, forever unfinished!”

Dream allows the explosions to fling him into the air, then pushes himself higher to hang suspended above it all. If he squints, he can almost see the ground buckling in a line of destruction towards Pogtopia. No one else notices, too caught up in the explosions still tearing through what had once been L’manberg.

Dream laughs, breathless and giddy. “YES!”

Techno appears from the shadows of the stage. Tommy turns to him, snarling, but he doesn’t pull his sword; his fingers are still wrapped tight around Wilbur’s forearm. Dream pulls out his crossbow with a flash of dull white. He fires and Tommy stumbles, an arrow in his shoulder. Tubbo rushes forward. Wilbur steps back, falling into place at Techno’s side. 

Tubbo’s eyes are wild as he clutches Tommy’s hand. “What—”

 _[Tommy Innit went off with a bang due to a rocket shot by Technoblade]_ _  
_ _[Tubbo went off with a bang due to a rocket shot by Technoblade]_

“What’s going on?!”

“Technoblade!”

Gravity takes hold and Dream falls.

“Let’s _go!”_

+++

The explosions had split the ground in two; Dream reconvenes with Techno and Wilbur on an island of land cut from what had once been Manberg proper. Everyone else has forgotten about them, too caught up in shifting through the debris.

Dream settles on a pile of rubble, leaning his axe against the rocks. Wilbur sits beside him on the ground, head tilted back to stare at the smoke-filled sky. Dream listens to him sing, low and mournful and proud, and catches Techno’s eye.

“You have the withers?”

Techno grins. “I do.”

It doesn’t take long to construct two towering soulsand bodies. Dream cranes his head back to look at them and smiles.

“How long until they notice and try to stop us, do you think?” Wilbur wonders, amused.

They settle in to wait.

Tommy sees them first, and his alarmed shout attracts everyone else’s attention. They all gather on the other side of the chasm, wary and fearful. Dream curls his fingers loosely around the handle of his axe but stays sitting, perched on his rubble throne. At the back of the crowd, Sapnap raises a questioning eyebrow.

_Dream: Let it happen._

He watches as Sapnap leans over to pass the message down the line.

“Techno, don’t,” Tommy snaps. 

Dream snorts. Tommy’s eyes flick over to him, face contorting into a snarl as he pulls an ender pearl from a pouch on his belt. Quackity reaches forward.

“Tommy, wait—”

The pearl lands. Tommy appears behind Techno in a flash of purple particles and starts towards the wither bodies; he barely makes it one step before Techno’s sword appears at his throat. Across the rift, everyone freezes. Techno circles around until he’s facing Tommy, back to the withers.

He sighs. “Do you think you’re a hero? Is that what this is?”

“I just—” Tommy’s eyes are wide and fearful, and when he swallows, his throat brushes the netherite blade. “I just wanted L’manberg. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Dream tilts his head. Beside him, Wilbur snorts.

“You just wanted _power,”_ Techno spits.

Tommy raises his hands. “I didn’t! I wanted—”

Techno’s grip tightens on his sword. He won’t kill Tommy like this, Dream knows he won’t, but everyone else doesn’t seem so sure. There are so many of them, they could probably save Tommy if they really tried.

Probably. But no one’s trying.

Techno scoffs. “Tommy, you just did a coup! You just did a hostile government takeover, includin’ the public execution of the previous _democratically elected leader_ , and then—”

“That was you!” Tommy snaps. “You and Wilbur did that, Technoblade, and then Wilbur blew up the entire fucking country!”

Dream chuckles. “I warned you, Tommy.” Tommy’s eyes flash. 

“You—”

“Oh my god,” Techno mutters. Then, louder, “That’s not the point; we all knew Wilbur was gonna blow it up, until you were fooled by his little act! You all knew I was an anarchist; I said it to your faces so many times! And then what did you do? You tried to form a new government right in front of me after _I helped you take down the old one.”_

Dream snorts.

“He’s got a point,” Wilbur murmurs, and Dream grins.

“That was bad planning on their part,” he agrees.

“I wanted—” Tommy starts.

“—to be a hero,” Techno interrupts, shaking his head. “We know. But the thing about this world, Tommy, is that good things don’t happen to heroes.”

He pauses, studying everyone frozen on the opposite side of the rift. Niki and Tubbo are at the front of the crowd; both of them are crying, but their shoulders are squared and their heads are held high. Dream respects that. Behind them, behind the rest of Pogtopia, his people are waiting.

“Let me tell you a story,” Techno says, raising his voice so everyone can hear; he wants to make a show of this. His sword is still steady at Tommy’s throat. “A story of a man called Theseus. His country - well, city-state, technically - was in danger. So he sent himself forward, into enemy lines. He slayed the Minotaur, and he saved his city.”

Techno tilts his head to look Tommy in the eye. “You know what they did to him, Tommy?”

“What.”

“They _exiled_ him. He died in _disgrace,_ despised by his people.” Techno sneers. “That’s what happens to heroes.”

“But he saved everybody!” Tubbo protests.

Techno shrugs. “The Greeks knew the score.” He pulls his sword away, sliding it back into its scabbard in one smooth motion. “But if you want to be a hero, Tommy, that’s fine.”

He pauses and then, when Tommy stays frozen, gestures impatiently. Tommy scrambles to pull another pearl from his belt. It falls short, but Tubbo and Niki pull him up and he stands in front of them like he can shield them from what’s coming.

Three void-black skulls appear in Techno’s hands. Dream stands, pulling Wilbur up with him, and catches two. Wilbur takes the third, and they start towards one of the soulsand bodies.

“If you want to be a hero, Tommy,” Techno screams, three more skulls appearing from his inventory, “then _die like one!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end! This series was so fun to write, so thank you all for reading and enjoying 💛💛  
> some notes on this chapter:
> 
> 1) I'm sorry there's no Philza Minecraft, I tried to add him and it fucked up how I wanted the plot to go so unfortunately I had to remove him. i may or may not be planning another fic with him tho 👀  
> Also, in regards to Schlatt's death: I actually think his canonical death was v fitting for his character but. I wanted more drama (and something that didn't lowkey feel like a fever dream) so jvkskd
> 
> 2) speaking of other fics,,,,,,I have at least two more in planning for the smp so uh. keep an eye out for those if u want!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! comments and kudos are much appreciated 💛


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